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| A scarecrow, a yellow moon, and pretty soon... |
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Turn me on tonight - I'm radioactive - radioactive...
Come on into my kitchen, it's gon be rainin'
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| Ranger XP-45 by XP Airguns (click here) |
Basically,
it's just an air rifle...
because it's gon' be raining outdoors.” - Robt. Johnson
(click here to listen to something The Legendary knows)
(click here to listen to something The Legendary knows)
There
is an uncounted, largely untapped supply of meat wandering around
North America.
Eurasian
boar stock have been released by disgusted hog farmers in protest of
unsustainable market prices caused by inflation and high
transportation and fuel costs for many years, to feed free range on
American prairies and woodlands - far and wide.
Gone
feral, they soon develop the black hair and tusks they quickly lose
when raised on concrete in factory feed lots.
Their range extends from Florida to West Texas and points north, east and west. (click here for some reliable information)
Subsistence
hunters rely on shooting them with rifles, or trapping them in cage
traps that do not injure them. This way, they may be fed and finished
to the liking of hungry families with plans for a
later slaughter, or sales to butchers.
If
ammunition becomes scarce, there are large bore air rifles with
deadly accuracy available for prices ranging anywhere from twelve
hundred to five thousand dollars. Smaller calibers capable of firing
tranquilizer darts may be obtained for as little as a couple of
hundred. Some hunters prefer to put the hogs at bay with dog packs –
pit bulls are considered de rigeur – and then stroll in to cut
their throats with long, sharp knives.
Think twice before you give away our rights...
Think twice before you give away our rights...
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Jail roof fixed, smoke alarms on hold pending cost
$1.2
million revamp unfinished
“Smoke
good, fire bad...” - Frankenstein
Waco
– Frankenstein was wrong. Fire still bad - smoke even worse...
It's
not fire that kills; it's the smoke. Inmates who riot routinely set
fire to smoldering items such as bedding and paper, plastic and
styrofoam - items that generate very toxic fumes when they burn.
They
want out, and they often are willing to risk their own lives and the
lives of their fellow inmates to risk the chance. What a way to go.
After
nearly three years of vacancy, the 300-plus capacity old Courthouse
Annex Jail is still on hold, even though the roof does not leak and
all systems are go.
The
burning question is this. Does the smoke evacuation system come up to
the standards of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards?
To
find out, the Court learned from Building Supervisor Sammy Sykora,
they will have to hire a test and evaluation firm, a system engineer,
and an alarm engineer in order to study the problem and certify the
results.
Mr.
Sykora told the Court that it's unclear if the smoke alarm and
evacuation system has ever been tested since its installation by HVAC
contractor Lochridge-Priest, way back in the now-murky days of
yesteryear of 1978.
“They
never test them with the inmates in there,” he explained. “With
the jail being empty...”
It
could be a risky gamble to just haul off and call the inspector.
The
test is straightforward enough. You release a series of smoke bombs
into the indoor areas of the jail. If the automatic evacuation system
kicks on, the fans blow and the louvers open up within a certain
amount of time, the next phase of the test is even more crucial.
Once
the all-clear comes, and it's time to put the inmates back in the
lockup, will the smoke detectors cause the system to re-start
automatically within the next 15 minutes? If it does, like the
ricochet biscuit that doesn't bounce back and hit you in the mouth –
you go hungry!
Time
is of the essence, since it only takes a few seconds to die of carbon
monoxide poisoning, a deadly gas that is colorless, odorless, and
tasteless, but kills very quickly.
Arson
is a murderous practice, on either side of the bars.
Mr.
Sykora and a commission inspector recently performed an informal test
using smoke bombs that showed the detectors and automatic fans and
louvers still work correctly, but the system itself is made up of
fans and other components they don't even make any more.
“You
can't even get parts for it,” he said of a return air fan that
“balances” the intake and exhaust system designed to make a
complete turnover in the indoor atmosphere within a specified period
of time.
Who
knows if they used the amount of smoke that is a standard of the
commission's real testing? If anyone knows, it's not Sammy Sykora, he
assured the Court.
The
economic conundrum facing the Court is simple enough.
The
jail is still operable under a permit that was voluntarily suspended
when the County government made a decision to upgrade a leaky roof
and other components of the building.
If
the smoke evacuation system fails the test, taxpayers would be stuck
with the bill to replace it, anyway.
“We
need to find out the cost,” said Interim County Judge Scott Felton,
a retired banker with experience in true cost accounting.
Following
Mr. Sykora's presentation, County Auditor Stan Chambers demonstrated
by the numbers that it costs about the same amount to house prisoners
in the Highway 6 County Jail as it does to pay CEC, Inc., to house
them in the for-profit Jack Harwell Detention Center.
Factoring
in transport and health care, the fixed costs of housing overflow
inmates at the corporate jail are only slightly lower than than the
variable costs of housing them at the county's lockup. Judge Felton
pointed out that contractually, the County is obligated to send
overflow prisoners to the Jack Harwell Detention Center, which was
built with funds raised from a revenue bond issue backed by the full
faith and credit of McLennan County - without voter approval.
The
variable involved in operation of the County Jail is the rate of
inflation experienced on any given day, according to Mr. Chambers.
One
may click here for an edited audio report of the Court's discussion
of the smoke detector system by clicking here.
It's
an item that has presented a recurring budgetary headache to the
McLennan County budget. The matter of housing overflow prisoners,
particularly on weekends when judges have sentenced offenders to do
their time on minor offenses, has driven the cost over budget by as
much as 300 percent for the item.
The
Courthouse Annex Jail was contracted to CEC to operate as a lockup
for federal prisoners, but the corporation vacated the contract in
favor of housing overflow prisoners at the Jack Harwell Detention
Center in exchange for paying a monthly fee to not use the downtown
annex jail.
It
prompted a serious debate at budget planning time when after two
weeks of negotiations, the Court had only come up with spending
increases and no budget cuts.
Freshman
Precinct 4 Commissioner Ben Perry stimulated some debate when he
showed the Court a way to avoid a tax increase and still cut spending
while saving popular programs former County Judge Jim Lewis had
suggested fall under the axe.
One
may read a previous report on Commissioner Perry's proposal and hear
an audio presentation by clicking here.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
GOP moves O's line in the sand by 3 months
Budget deal would avoid U.S. credit crunch
Washington - House GOP leadership emerged from a two-hour closed-door meeting with the news that they will move a possible collapse of government operations back by 3 months by delaying a decision on the debt ceiling.
The move came in defiance of President Barack Hussein Obama's insistence that he won't have a monthly confrontation over whether the government can pay its bills - or face the prospect of draconian cuts to Pentagon programs through automatic triggers imposed when a bipartisan conference of Congressional leaders failed to reach an agreement on spending cuts in mid-2012.
The move came in defiance of President Barack Hussein Obama's insistence that he won't have a monthly confrontation over whether the government can pay its bills - or face the prospect of draconian cuts to Pentagon programs through automatic triggers imposed when a bipartisan conference of Congressional leaders failed to reach an agreement on spending cuts in mid-2012.
Waco cops jail accused after surety goes off bond
Woman
has accused him of arson murder
Waco
– Delvin “Dee” Maddison is back in jail for the charge of
engaging in organized criminal activity after a bail bond surety went
off his bond.
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| Carrie D. Woodlock |
Mr.
Maddison is the subject of intense accusations by a former lover
named Carrie D. Woodlock who has alleged he set a blaze that claimed
the lives of Ashley Dawn Rogers and two of her children in Feburary
of last year at a trailer park on N. 19th St. in
Bosqueville.
He has repeatedly denied her allegations, at one point blurting out to officers seconded to the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Warrants Task Force that he did not set the blaze. He made similar protests in this Youtube video:
In the video, he accuses an individual named Myron Schanck of the deed, calling him by his street name, "Shogun."
Said Officer Steve Anderson of the Waco Police Department, "I think this was a surety off bond. It wasn't anything new." He was one of the officers who apprehended him in August, along with retired Texas Ranger Matt Cawthon, who now serves as Chief Deputy of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office. He was seconded to the fugitive warrants operation as an employee of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division at the time of Mr. Maddison's August arrest.
According
to the indictment, Mr. Maddison and others borrowed or somehow got
control of a man's vehicle, then refused to return it.
Ms.
Woodlock alleged in an exclusive interview with The Legendary that he
spent the night before the day of the fire, which occurred at 6:30
p.m., with her at an apartment she shared with a man who worked
nights as a security guard.
She
said Mr. Maddison dealt drugs someone “fronted” him during the
night, then spent the day buying her presents. He left in the
afternoon, then returned with another man she cannot name who, she
said, needed to wash his hands.
One
may read an entire series of articles about the matter by clicking
here:
http://downdirtyword.blogspot.com/2013/01/outlaw-woman-back-in-jail-for-hindering.html
Sheriff looking for some answers on using old jail
Waco
– Sheriff Parnell McNamara told The Legendary he has been unable to
learn why he can't use the lockup at the McLennan County Courthouse
to house overflow prisoners.
According
to the County Auditor in Commissioners Court sessions at budget time,
cost overruns to the “outside care” budget at $45.50 per prisoner
per day paid to the for-profit New Jersey corporation CEC, Inc., to
house inmates at the Jack Harwell Detention Center ran to 300% over
plans for fiscal year 2012.
Officials
of the State Commission on Jail Standards said the lockup at the
Courthouse Annex has an operating permit, that County officials
voluntarily withdrew prisoners to make costly renovations
simultaneous to remodeling a Visiting Judge Courtroom on the first
floor of the building that seats about 500 people for jury selection
and large docket calls.
One
may hear an edited audio discussion of a discussion that took place five months ago of the estimated
costs of renovation of the jail by clicking here:
An
elevator brings defendants in custody straight to that courtroom from
the floors above without requiring a trip across the catwalk that
connects the third floor of the Courthouse with the holding cells.
Jurors and spectators may enter directly from a door on the alley
between the two buildings where a magnetometer is located for
security purposes. Presently, jurors, witnesses, defendants, lawyers
and judges must enter the building at the eastern door of the
Courthouse, ascend to the third floor, goes across the catwalk, then
descend to the first floor of the Courthouse Annex building by
another elevator.
State
Criminal 19th District Judge Ralph T. Strother ordered a
change of venue in the capital murder trial of Albert Love, partly
over security concerns. He is the second of five defendants allegedly
associated with the Chicago-based street gang called the Bloods who
were originally charged in a gangland assault rifle slaying of two
men and the wounding of two others at a subsidized housing project
named Lakeside Villas in March of 2011.
Prosecutors
have dropped indictments of two of the defendants due to a lack of
key evidence. Rickey Cummings received the death penalty following a
tense courtroom drama last fall in which members of the victims'
families stared down relatives of the assailants in the crowded third
floor rotunda of the courthouse.
Visibly
shaken jurors were forced to walk a fine line from the courtroom to
the jury room during breaks. Deputies admonished news photographers
to be extra careful about catching images of the jurors in their
lenses, on pain of the threatened ejection of every member of the
media who uses a camera.
Deputies
walked escorted jurors to a school bus in the parking lot, which
whisked them away to a remote location where they parked their cars,
and the Judge received armed protection as he walked to his vehicle
at the close of each day's hearing. Prosecutors and defense
counselors will pick a jury for the upcoming trial at the Williamson
County Courthouse at Georgetown in the coming months.
The
item of using the lockup is on today's County Commissioners Court
agenda under the heading of a work session.
It
has been placed on the weekly agenda for nearly three years, a
constant point of inquiry for members of the Commissioners Court, who
ask nearly every week about progress on the renovation project, but
receive little or no information from contractors and building
supervisors who work for McLennan County.
As
late as two months ago, County Judge Scott Felton told the Court he
thought the only thing left to do was to fix the drains on some
showers and finish a touch-up painting project.
One
may listen to an audited audio report of a discussion of that matter
by clicking here.
In
a subsequent meeting last Tuesday, he told the Court that there was
no information available about the matter, and the moment passed.
Former
Sheriff Larry Lynch denied The Legendary access to the jail to take
pictures of the renovation job, but allowed a reporter from the “Waco
Tribune-Herald” to visit, along with a photographer.
Reached
for comment, Sheriff McNamara said, “I don't know why that's taking
so long. It seems to me like it's taking an awfully long time.”
He
stressed a need for good communications with the members of the
Commissioners Court, members of which approve his department's
budget.
The
matter of outside care of prisoners and the Sheriff's Department
budget prompted a proposal of a tax increase for fiscal year 2013, a
measure slapped down and the proposed tax increase halved by the
Court. They eliminated the position of County Budget Director and the
two-man department and passed the duty to the County Auditor's
office, which is under the supervision of the State District Judges
who preside in the courts of McLennann County.
One
may hear a budget cut proposal voiced at the time by Precinct 4
Commissioner Ben Perry by clicking here:
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